Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sent a text to a friend within hours of the deadly attack, saying, "Don't go thinking it's me," a court has heard.

Azamat Tazhayakov received the text 90 minutes after the twin blasts that killed three people and injured more than 260 others, a federal prosecutor said.

Tazhayakov is one of three friends of Tsarnaev facing trial on obstruction and conspiracy charges.

He and his roommate, Dias Kadyrbayev, are accused of removing items from Tsarnaev's University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth dorm room several days after the bombing.

Image Caption:The fireworks from Tsarnaev's dorm room were later found in a landfill

Prosecutors say the pair removed a backpack, fireworks that had been emptied of their black powder and a laptop computer.

Both have pleaded not guilty.

As Tazhayakov's trial got under way on Monday, jurors also heard that Tsarnaev told his friends a month before the bombing that "it was good to die" a martyr because you would die "with a smile on your face and go straight to heaven".

But Tazhayakov's defence lawyer, Nicholas Wooldridge, attempted to distance his client from Tsarnaev's alleged actions, telling the jury that he is not a terrorist and that he never intended to help Tsarnaev.